Old Print Article: “Clubs Made Up Of Freaks,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle (1901)

November 3, 2010 in Old Print Articles, Urban Studies | Permalink

A 1941 U.S. freak show. (Image by Jack Delano.)

I would have to guess that July 20, 1901 was a slow news day. How else to explain this ridiculous space-filler in that day’s edition of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle? It’s an article about freakish fraternal clubs in Europe. An excerpt:

“There have been associations of all sorts of individuals formed in this country, but none of them would bear comparison for freakishness with some of Europe’s clubs. At Hoogstraelen, a small Belgian town, a baldheaded club, to secure admission to which a calvous area of 21 square centimeters, or 8 1/2 square inches, is imperative, has lately been founded. Its antithesis exists in the Long-Haired Club of Ghent, whose members must wear either a beard of 39 centimeters (one foot) or hair 20 centimeters (8 inches) in length.

‘Les 100 Kilos,’ a Parisian club for which no one weighing less than 100 kilos (232 pounds) is eligible, is in striking contrast with ‘Les Fifty Kilos’ of Marseilles, to which entrance is alone permitted to such as are over 170 centimeters (5 feet 7 inches) in height and under 50 kilos (118 pounds) in height. For several years the president of this club was a Mr. Be, who, though nearly 6 feet, weighed less than 98 pounds. Two years ago, however, he took unto himself a wife, under whose solicitous care he so rapidly gained flesh that in less than twelve months he was compelled to resign his membership.

Berlin boasts of a big mouth club. In this club room is kept a wooden ball as large as a medium sized orange, which every candidate for admission is required to insert in his mouth before his name can go for ballot. In the same city, too, there is a one-handed club, composed only of such as have suffered the loss of a hand.”

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